Chrono Trigger was originally released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1995.
My first experience with Chrono Trigger was back on the SNES version. And although I thoroughly enjoyed it, I never got to fully experience the game completely. However, thanks to this amazing remake, I'm finally able to play the game in it's entirety - with improved menu's, cutscenes and added features.
The first change in the DS version you'll noticed are the additional options when starting a new game. You'll be given the option between "Classic" style gameplay and new "DS" style. Neither of these actually effect the game mechanics itself, but are purely cosmetic changes.
The new DS style gameplay moves the menu down to the bottom touch screen. This reduces clutter in the top portion of the screen and also enables the optional use of stylus to allow you to navigate the menu by tapping the quite large buttons and selecting your enemy. Out of battle, the bottom half of the screen reveals a map of the area you are in. As you explore dungeons, the map will slowly reveal itself. You can also control you characters movements on the field by moving the stylus along the screen, aswell as allocate shortcuts to certain sections of the screen that surround the map to allow quicker access to the equipment screen and other areas of the menu.
If you'd prefer to play the game with it's original navigation system, the classic style gameplay allows for this - keeping the top half of the screen completely true to the original SNES version, limiting navigation of the menu to buttons only and removing the stylus aspect completely. In battle, you will still instead simply get a list of enemies you are facing on the bottom half of the screen.
Regardless of which style you select, you can still navigate the games battle menu and control characters on the field with buttons. The stylus controls are 100% optional.
The game itself follows the story of Crono, who, with the help of a cast of other characters, must travel through time in order to defeat Lavos and save the world from destruction.
You move from map to map in similar fashion to 2D RPG's of Chrono Triggers time, however, unlike RPG's of it's time you will not encounter random field battles. Instead you will seamless flow into your turn based battles by encountering enemies placed around the map. Now while this is a refreshing and welcome change, the location of all enemies is completely pre-determined, so travelling through maps and dungeons for a 2ND or 3RD time will feel a bit redundant.
The battle system in Chrono Trigger is fairly similar to most turn-based Role-playing games, but introduces a new mechanic that allows you to perform powerful Duel and Triple techs with multiple characters. As you win battles, you will earn TP (Tech Points). These points will unlock new moves for your character, such as Crono's Cyclone attack, in which, at the expense of MP ( Magic Points), Crono will spin around a selected target, harming all enemies within his range. However, this can be combined with other characters techs, such as Lucca's Flamethrower. Combining these two techs will cause a Cyclone of fire that engulfs all enemies caught within Crono's Cyclone attack.
There are dozens of single, duel and triple techs to learn, all with varying outcomes. Learning and experimenting with these techs is half the fun of Chrono Triggers battle system.
In addition to these techs you will also have magic. Each character has an element assigned to them, limiting them to spells of that element (Crono = Light, Lucca = Fire, Frog = Water, etc.). Even though these spells may seem just like additional techs, they are capable of dealing massive amounts of damage to enemies that are weak to each element, or healing enemies that are strong against them.
The games battle system is quite fun and creative, and has some amazing bosses to supplement it. From the optional Son of Sun boss which will give even some of the highest levelled characters trouble, requiring you to randomly guess which target to hit, to simpler bosses such as Yakra, to the games final boss, Lavos, at which you can fight at almost any point in the game resulting in one of thirteen different endings. These are some of the best bosses you'll fight in any 2D RPG you'll ever play.
The game also features a new Monster Trainer minigame. This allows you to adopt and train a monster, battle it in the arena and with friends over local wi-fi. This can be fun at first, but the enjoyment, unfortunately, wears off fairly quickly.
As you progress through the games story, you will encounter the occasional cutscene. Although these cutscenes (only found in the Playstation and DS ports) are quite nice to watch, they pretty much just summarise evens that have already happened, don't feature voice acting, and are too sparse and far between. The game would have been just fine without them.
Chrono Trigger is unique in that you can face the games final boss at any point in the storyline, which will unlock a total of thirteen different endings (twelve from the SNES version and one new ending). Although you may have to unlock some of these endings using the New Game+ feature due to the difficulty of Lavos, they will all add a new reason to replay through the game, if enjoyment alone wasn't enough.
Gameplay: 10
Excellent battle system, with a fantastic new menu overhaul.
Graphics: 9
The SNES graphics, while not particularly up to date with current gen consoles, look good on the DS. Cutscenes are also very well animated and look terrific.
Sound: 8
An excellent soundtrack, but far from perfect. Some sound effects sound quite dated and poor.
Replay Value: 9
Thirteen different endings, new content, multiple sidequests and a new Monster Trainer minigame give more reasons to replay an already highly replayable RPG.
Overall: 9
The DS version adds some minor things to the game which Chrono Trigger veterans will be sure to enjoy, aswell as allowing those who never experienced the first a change to play it. A terrific game. Well worth purchasing and a welcome addition to any DS owners collection